Delta Tunnels Archives

Could this Obscure California Agency Derail Jerry Brown’s Delta Tunnels?

November 30, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Andrea Mora /The Sacramento Beeby Ryan Sabalow, Alexei Koseff, and Dale Kasler

As Gov. Jerry Brown leaves office, his controversial Delta tunnels plan is on the ropes. Most farmers who would get water from the tunnels still haven’t agreed to pay their share. Rather than support the tunnels, the Trump administration is trying to bend federal environmental laws to simply deliver more water through the existing Delta system to San Joaquin Valley farms and cities — and just rejected the project’s request for a big startup loan. Brown’s successor, Gavin Newsom, says he would like to see the project scaled down. Lawsuits challenging the project abound.

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Delta Tunnels Opponents Score A Victory

In the bitter battle over the future of the California WaterFix Project, opponents recently scored a victory in their effort to stop the construction of Delta Tunnels. The development occurred when the Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) staff issued a preliminary finding stating that WaterFix, as it exists today, is inconsistent with the Delta Plan. Without a certificate of consistency, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) cannot move WaterFix forward.

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Massive California Water Tunnel Project Forges Ahead on Several Fronts

October 30, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Andrea Mora /Water Deeply (New York)by Cariad Hayes Thronson

The spring and summer of 2018 saw frenzied activity around California WaterFix, the latest iteration of a decades-long, on-again-off-again effort to convey fresh water from the Sacramento River to the South Delta export pumps while bypassing the Delta itself. Governor Jerry Brown has made WaterFix a top priority, but as his administration heads into its final months, the project – one of the largest infrastructure projects in state history – still faces a raft of uncertainties.

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Delta Caucus Objects to Federal Loan to Support Tunnels Project

October 26, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Andrea Mora /Daily Democrat (Woodland, Calif.)

Members of California’s Legislative Delta Caucus, including its co-chairmen, Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, and Assemblymember Jim Frazier, D-Discovery Bay, sent a letter Friday to the Environmental Protection Agency objecting to a $1.6 billion loan for construction of the state’s controversial twin tunnels project on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta known as WaterFix. “This project poses devastating environmental consequences for the state’s most important waterway while threatening the economic vitality of the entire region,” said Dodd, one of nine lawmakers to sign the letter.

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Delta Caucus Urges Postponement Of Tunnel Hearings

September 8, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Andrea Mora /East County Today

Assemblymember Jim Frazier (D-Discovery Bay), co-chairman of the California Legislative Delta Caucus, Friday sent the attached letter from the Caucus to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, urging postponement of a hearing scheduled Tuesday morning on State Water Project contract extensions and amendments, which has implications for the proposed Delta tunnels project. “The timing of this hearing and lack of adequate notification is deeply disturbing, an example of backroom dealing that causes Californians to distrust their elected leaders. There is no good reason to hold these hearings now. These contracts don’t expire until 2023, five years from now. This is another attempt by proponents of the Delta tunnels to push this project through. I am disappointed the Joint Legislative Budget Committee couldn’t see that this hearing is unnecessary at this time.”

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Delta Tunnels Cost Soars to Nearly $20 Billion When Accounting For Inflation

August 16, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Gayle Falkenthal /Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler

The estimated cost of the Delta tunnels project, Gov. Jerry Brown’s controversial plan to re-engineer the troubled hub of California’s water network, has jumped to nearly $20 billion when accounting for inflation.

Tunnels backers say the higher cost reflects the impact from inflation over 16 years, not cost over-runs or design changes, and isn’t expected to hurt the project’s ability to move ahead.

The latest $19.9 billion price tag represents a 22 percent increase from the estimate of $16.3 billion, released by state officials last year. That $16.3 billion figure was provided in 2017 dollars.

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OPINION: The Bullet Train Has (Almost) Nothing On Brown’s Twin Tunnels

August 8, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Andrea Mora /The Orange County Registerby Susan Shelly

If you thought the bullet train was a boondoggle designed to lift money from your wallet while delivering nothing, wait until you hear what’s next. The state of California is building a time machine. That’s how Gov. Jerry Brown and the Department of Water Resources intend to pay part of the cost of the $17 billion twin-tunnel project known as WaterFix. They have to get voters to approve the costly undertaking so property taxes can be raised to pay for it. Here’s the catch: The voters have to approve it in 1960.

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OPINION: Block Outrageous Effort To Lock In Delta Tunnels Water Grab

August 8, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Andrea Mora /The Mercury News (San Jose)

Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration is now trying to jam through a political deal that would enable construction of his $17 billion Delta twin-tunnels project, the biggest public works project in state history, without the approval of the state Legislature, the voters or ratepayers who would be footing the bill. Brown’s state Department of Water Resources suddenly plans to extend State Water Project contracts, with amendments, for another 50 years. Fifty years! That would allow water contractors backing the twin-tunnels project to lock in water contracts for the Delta tunnels project before Brown leaves office at the end of this year.

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OPINION: Water Tunnels Approval Is Pure Government Arrogance

July 31, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Andrea Mora /Ventura County Starby Tom Elias

The way environmental activists in California’s Delta region tell it, there is no part of government in this state more arrogant than the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. The huge MWD, supplier of water to the majority of the state’s populace, is certainly acting the part as it pushes for a project Gov. Jerry Brown is trying to make an irreversible fait accompli before he leaves office at the end of this year.

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OPINION: ‘So What?’ Attitude At Root Of Water Wars

July 12, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Andrea Mora /Chico Enterprise-Record

A sequence of events over that last week may explain why California is endlessly locked in water wars. Last Friday, the State Water Resources Control Board released a final plan for the San Joaquin River and the framework for an upcoming plan on the Sacramento River, which will require less water be diverted from those waterways and their tributaries. Four days later, the Metropolitan Water District in Southern California voted to spend $11 billion — the bulk of the $17 billion cost — to put two tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

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